To start this assignment, choose one of the following statements and respond in detail in your comment box. Do you agree? Disagree? Why? Be sure to specify which statement to which you are responding and explain your reasons.
-It is possible to move from poverty to the middle class.
-Hard work alone determines success.
-Being middle class is the American Dream.
-Poverty equals unhappiness.
-Money equals happiness.
-You can never change your class status.
-A stable family life is important to achieving success.
-It is possible to move from poverty to the middle class: Of coarse, through several of different means, one can easily change their living conditions.
ReplyDelete-Hard work alone determines success: No, one can be born into wealth, have connections, or invent something easy to profit with, like the snuggy, or Facebook, and become successful with little effort.
-Being middle class is the American Dream; no, the idea that one can succeed and achieve their goals is the American Dream.
-Poverty equals unhappiness: Wanting what you can't get leads to unhappiness. Being unable to provide for your family can cause depression, but having one counts for something.
-Money equals happiness: Getting what you want may not always lead to happiness. Once an individual adapts to having lots of money, they will simply want more. Doing valuable things with money can lead to happiness
-You can never change your class status: Get money. Make connections, or invent something easy to profit with, like the Macantosh, or instagram, and become successful with little effort.
-A stable family life is important to achieving success: As long as one's family does not occupy them, or cause problems, they will not be a negative factor.
I agree. Good point.
DeleteA positive perspective, Jordan. I wonder, however, if it really that easy to change our living conditions. What are some of your ideas?
DeleteIt's always possible to move up the social ladder. However, if you are low on the ladder you have to work harder to achieve a better lifestyle. Through ones job you can obtain money, the harder the job/career the more money. In order to succeed in a higher paying job you need to work hard in school. Those who are already in poverty maybe have to work a little harder because things wont come easily to them.
ReplyDeleteIt not impossible to move up from the lower class to the higher class. What it will take is huge amounts of hard work and determination. it's true that it will be harder or easier depending on where you start out from. however, the harder you work, the more you will value the things that you earn
ReplyDelete"A stable family life is important to achieving success."
ReplyDeleteI believe that a sustained and supportive family life is incredibly important towards achieving success. If there is an unfair and uncooperative environment for a human being, it will be profoundly uneasy to work and gain success. When you think about most lives at home, dedicated family members are supported throughout their endeavors in order to attain success. If you take that away from a hardworking person in need of support, they would surely be much less successful than they would be with support from their family.
An interesting perspective, Kyler, especially given the "American Value" of autonomy and independence. Based on our post, stability goes beyond having the means to provide food, shelter, etc. It includes emotional (and financial?) support so that people feel they CAN achieve.
DeleteYou can never change your social status
ReplyDeleteThe American dream for social class is to go up in class, and have money in social class. I believe that people can change their social class. It is harder to go up in social class, because you would have to have work harder to get more money. You would also have to dress nicer, and act properly. If a person wanted to go down in social class it would be easier, because you wouldn't have to work as hard. You don't need a lot of money to go down in social class. To go down a person would just have act less proper, and wouldn't have to dress as nice as a person in the upper class.
Money equals happiness
ReplyDeleteI believe this is true in some cases and not in other cases. Maybe a question that we should ask ourselves is what would you consider happiness. Some consider happiness by just having money to afford to buy all the luxuries they so desire. An other way some define happiness is a state of being fulfilled in feeling that your life is complete. Money does not always do this. Such as in Gatsby having all his luxuries but not able to have the love of his life. I believe happiness is the state where you feel that your life is complete the way you want it. Unfortunately that is not the case for Gatsby.
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ReplyDeleteAnthony Aronov. 3rd Period.
ReplyDeleteYou can never change you status.
Yes you can. People always tell others that you can't do something, yet they always do it. People overcome the toughest of challenges with the right ammount of effort. Like the little train who said, "I think I can! I think I can!". And he did.
Social class, I belive that this is a made up word by people who would benefit at the top. Life is not measured on money, atleasy not me. I measure it on how much I enjoy life and how much I can get out of certain things. My family cam from Russia to America and started of living in a single bedroom apartment, only eating what they could offord with Welfare Checks and Food Stamps. Though we moved up. Now in our family we have two dental profecionals, two star mechanics, and a expert banker. As well as owning each couple owning their own beutiful home.
My grandfather in Russia had it all. A wife, a child and several wonderful careers. He was the personal driver for the General of the Russian Army, as well as the personal driver for the Priminister of Agriculture. After that he owned is own mechanic shop. His prized library at home contained over 5000 books! He gave all that success away to move to America. Why? Because he did not measure life on how much money, but on how much does he get out of life.
Social class is just a system developed by those that would benefit from it. If someone who focuses his life on getting rich, he doesnt have the time to enjoy that money. As much as $$ is important, success is not based on money, its based of many factors. Though the main question is, are you satisfied with what your getting out of life?
Hard work alone determines success:
ReplyDeleteAs much as we would all like to believe that hard work will be the only factor in determining success we have to face that it won't be. Although you cannot get very far with out putting in the extra effort sometimes it doesn't work out the way that you hope. Many people that are successful will say that their practice and determination got them to where they were today, but a lot of the time being in the right place at the right time, or knowing certain people can get you to where you want to be. It may seem unfair to others who do put in all the time and effort but a lot of life happens by chance. With this in mind people will believe that they are the one person that will get this luck and become successful. Life isn't made to be easy and even with the effort you put in sometimes success just isn't in the cards.
You can never change your class status:
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree with this statement. There is absolutely no empirical evidence to support this and there are countless examples that disprove this. If it was impossible to change your social class, then what's the point of even trying? Why should we be in school right now when our class fate is already destined? It's just illogical to think that society could ever function this way; and it has been proven, through the fact that socialism has never been widely successful, that such a statement holds no truth in reality. Capitalism is the only economy type that can support the competitive nature of human beings; and the hope of advancing in society through hard work and determination is what drives our country. Also, there are countless examples of successful people who have defected from their socioeconomic standing to gain great wealth. One such person is Andrew Carnegie, the railroad and steel magnate who built America's first billion dollar company. He grew up in a poor immigrant family from Scotland, but eventually became one of the wealthiest men in history. Obviously there is no basis to support this statement, which is definitely a positive sign for hopefuls trying to make it big in such a cut-throat environment.
Poverty equals Unhappiness:
ReplyDeleteI definitely disagree with this statement. In my opinion, i actually believe that being deprived of the these so called "necessities" society depicts is what gives true happiness. In today's society, there is so much materialism centered around money and the cool new things it can buy. But in the way of living under constant exposure to having one thing than needing to get the next, it becomes a cycle of short-lived highs off materialistic things then realizing there are things much better. With having the least, old things become cherished and hold more value than those who have much more and take advantage of these things. While kids these days seem to always need the latest iPhone's or gaming console, children deprived from that luxury find happiness in things others take advantage of, like books or actually playing outside.
"Money equals happiness."
ReplyDeleteI strongly disagree with this statement. I look around in repulsion at people who are so wound up in how much money they have. I see countless people, both men and women, far too interested in the opposite gender that has money, drives a nice car, and other nice things. I've met people who equate their money to happiness. I see too many people working jobs that they cannot stand. I do agree that success equals happiness, but success does not equal money. Of course being successful may have money come along with it, but if you are not successful and succeed in everything you do, neither money or happiness will reach their hand out to you. At the end of the day, if what you do makes you happy and feeling successful, keep doing what you are doing.
You can never change your class status.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with this statement. It's possible to change your class status through hard work and determination. There is nothing that limits one's success. Often people feel discouraged or feel it's impossible to do so, but there have been many cases where one changes social class. There have been countless situations where someone had a good idea and then utilized it to make money, thus changing their class status because they became wealthy. Similarly, one can become of a lower class status by choosing not to work. Ultimately success and class status depends on hard work and determination.
Money equals happiness: If we look to the story of the Great Gatsby, this tell us that money does not equals happiness. Gatsby had a hole in his life that he tried to fill with money, but it did not really work out for him. Having money allows you not to be worried about economic concerns, so that might make life easier. However, if you are not happy with your life or who you are, then having money is not going to make much difference. There have been lots of rich people who died at young age because of drugs or drug overdoses. We might think that these rich people were unhappy. So, money doesn't always equal happiness.
ReplyDeleteMoney equals happiness:
ReplyDeleteI believe this statement can be true, but it just depends on what you use your money to do. For example, if you decided to use money to do harm or create power for yourself you might not end up being happy. If you use money to help others or do things for yourself that you believe can help you become a better person, then sure you will be happy. For people who just came into money of course they would be happy, but then again it also might only cause short term happiness. This statement only says, "money equals happiness". Who is it creating happiness for though? I also believe that if one man sees another with tons of money, that man would become unhappy, so is money only creating happiness for the person who posses the money (unless they help other people with their money)?
-Poverty equals unhappiness.
ReplyDeleteI know for a fact that there are many people out there with much less that are perfectly happy and their lives are going well. They are not constantly in want and they are pleased with and cherish everything that they have received. They are not constantly in want of more but instead thankful for what they have been provided with. These people live simpler lives that give them a chance to appreciate their family and friends, something that today in society we do not do.
-You cannot change social classes.
ReplyDeleteI strongly disagree with this statement because in the past we have seen many people change social classes for many different reasons. Two examples of these ways people have changed classes is talent and just having a good idea. Someone with talent in basketball can become successful and reach the top of the social class no matter where they come from. Also someone with a good idea can invent something and strike it rich and instantly become atop the social class. It does not matter where you start social class wise; as long as you work for it I believe one can change classes.
-Poverty equals unhappiness.
ReplyDelete-Money equals happiness.
I think to answer one of these questions, you must answer both of these questions. While money DOES NOT equal happiness, I feel poverty in a lot of ways causes one to be stressed and therefore unhappy. While money does not make you happy, it can help you become more comfortable with the position you are in.